Score Attack
by Aliniel
Summary: Laby is the unbeatable queen of Atlas Arcades, until someone suddenly beats her high score. Little she knew this would lead her into a quest for love! Thanks to Haroo950 for the cover image, check out their works :3


_**Happy Valentines!**_

_**This oneshot was planned to be released a long time ago but... after some delays and other problems, it had to wait. But now is a perfect time for it to appear. Well, I say oneshot, but it's actually going to have two chapters, it seems that I can't make short stories no mather how I try hahaha.**_

_**No explanations this time. Nope. You're going in naked.**_

* * *

For anyone who is not used to the strong noise and abuse of blinking lights, the arcades must be a torture. However, there was a huge number of people that every day, after their classes or jobs, would come to enjoy the different machines that this business offers. However, a great part of these people would come just to see something special. Like a celebrity, everyone who comes at this arcade wants to see the legend in person. A girl said to have beaten all the machines and topped all the leaderboards with her score.

Today, as always, she was showing off at the shooting games. A new machine just arrived with the latest release of _Crimson Rose_, a shoot'n up game starring a blonde protagonist with oversized bust fighting against hordes of zombified demons. The game was pretty popular due to it using two revolvers as controllers instead of the classic square futuristic pistol. While the game was designed to be played by two, this legend was able to handle both guns herself, leaving everyone else impressed with her skills. She completed the level in just a couple of minutes, easily surpassing any other record. Once the leaderboard showed up, she introduced her usual three letters sign: ETW.

"Laby! Are you done already?"

She turned her eyes from the machine to her friend. Laby flipped her bright pink hair out of her eyes and moved away from the machine, walking happily as the people that was watching her match cheered her. She was still wearing her white tracksuit, the same she had to bring for the PE classroom this evening. The girl calling for her was a little further away than the group of fans, a short white haired girl wearing the casual school uniform. A black combination of shirt and jacket adorned with the symbol of the most important and prestigious academy in Altera.

"Yeah, I wonder what I should play now, Lu." Laby answered, scanning the arcades for any other machine that she would enjoy.

"Didn't you play all of this already?" Lu complained. While she also likes video games and that kind of stuff, she grow tired of expending their free time at _Atlas Arcade_.

In this time and age there weren't many arcades like this still functioning. Since most people already has a computer or a gaming console, this kind of business started to become less and less popular, specially since the appearance of online gaming. However, a few survivors like this would still exist in Altera, the only place on Elrios where you could find this relics. The Atlas Arcade was the biggest one in the city, and probably the only one to still receive new games in a regular basis. What made this place interesting for people was the old machines that contained games impossible to find or play elsewhere.

That, and the presence of Laby, better known here as _Eternity Winner _for her unstoppable winning streak. Ever since she first appeared, Laby managed to get the top score in every single game, overthrowing many other experts and assiduous players. Her skills were so high that many people would suggest she was a cheater. However, the truth was a lot simpler.

Laby was obsessed with competition. If she sees someone doing something, she would do all she can to do it better. This obsession was not restricted to games. In her school she would always try as hard as she could to get the highest scores. In the PE classes she always gets the best marks. She's always fighting to get the best of the best, turning her into an extremely competitive girl, a character that most of her close colleges would find annoying, resulting in the girl struggling in one thing and one thing only: making friends.

Luckily for her, Lu was one of those persons who are always willing to start a conversation themselves, which allowed Laby to start hanging out with someone who also didn't seem to care about her competitive obsession. They wandered the arcade, looking for something to do. The place was filled with rows and rows of machines. Every one with it's distinctive set of lights and flashy stickers. They were also hella noisy, combinating their catchy idle sounds, stage melodies and credits songs with the sound of coins being poured inside the slim slots into a horrendous cacophony that Laby actually learned to enjoy. But not everything was gaming machines: crane games, mini bowling and basketball, throwball and many other games also crowded the space around the recreative room and the cafeteria.

"What about grabbing something to eat at the cafeteria?" Laby suggested, already walking towards there.

"Not from the cafeteria here. The waiter is an ugly fatty that always looks at me in a creepy way. I heard they opened a food stall in the park, we should go and check it out," Lu answered.

But her suggestion was ignored as Laby suddenly froze, staring at the monitor of one of the machines. It was the sixth game of the _T****u project_, a particularly hard 2D shooting game. It was famous worldwide for how hard it was to make it through the game, and of course Laby was able to complete it. In the highest difficulty. Without losing any lives or wasting any bombs. In the fastest time ever seen in the arcade. Which earned her such an high score that nobody was ever near to beat.

But today, as the machine randomly idled from its main menu to a short demo of the game and then a quick view of the leaderboards, Laby saw her ETW in second place. She ran to the machine just to see a new acronym on top: ECU. The gap between her scores and this new person wasn't too big, but it was still enough to turn her prideful position into a second place.

"This can't be!" Laby shouted, Lu moved next to her and checked the monitor as well before whistling at what they discovered.

"Looks like you got beaten," Lu said, making Laby look at her with an angry look.

"Ha! Not for too long, this person must had been really lucky in their run, give a moment and I'll get my position back," Laby said, already reaching for her pockets to grab a coin. She was stopped when she felt something heavy on her back, it was Lu who suddenly decided to use her as a backrest.

"I said I wanted to go and get something from that food stall. You can stay here and play that game or come with me,"

"Geez... " Laby pouted, she finally put her coins back and followed Lu "but tomorrow I'll come and get my leaderboards back.

* * *

The next day she arrived as soon as she could. Laby rushed into the arcades and searched the whole place. She questioned everyone she knew and a few she didn't and even tried asking the staff to see the security cameras recordings. She was decided to meet with this new rival today. All she knew was that it was a young girl with really long white hair.

But just waiting for her to appear probed to be boring enough for her to decide to wait playing games. She eventually got engulfed in her own match and forgot about the match until some hours later, when she saw many people gathering around one particular machine. A large group of people crowded under the sign of the _Gu*******es_. A 2D shoot'n up game well known for its long boss fights. Laby had to make room for her with her elbows until she finally reached the inside of the crowd. And there she was.

A white mane covering the backrest of the chair, allowing her to see a single arm rapidly moving on the side. She moved next to the chair. The person playing didn't took her eyes from the screen. She was a young girl with really pale skin. Laby instantly noted the blue gem on her forehead, as well as the two curious blue marks under her eyes. Before saying anything she took a look at the screen.

Her play style was amazing. From milimetrically calculated jumps to absurdly obsessive micromanaging on top of cat-like reflexes, this girl seemed to play these games as if she were some kind of machine. All things considered, she wasn't doing particularly good here, as Laby saw her high-score safely resting two millions over this girl final score.

The crowd started to move away as the game abruptly finished. The last coin of this player wasted on a pointless game over, she tried an overly risky strategy that didn't went well. Only then she turned away from the screen for her eyes to meet with Laby's who was still next to her.

"Hey!" Laby said. She was so determined to talk with her that she actually forgot what she would say to her. She wanted to tell her off for stealing her high-scores, but now she was a bit curious about her. In her uncertainty she just introduced herself "Name's Laby. What's your name?"

"Eve."

The white haired girl waited for her to say something more, but since Laby was just standing there, thinking about what to say, she eventually stood up and moved to another machine.

"Hey, wait!" Laby said, running after her "I want to challenge you!"

The words came out of her mouth abruptly. She did plan to challenge her, but she had thought of a cooler and more impressive presentation. What she just did felt so strange that she actually started regretting saying it.

"Why?" Eve asked, still looking at the machines, trying to chose one.

"Because you beat one of my top scores! Of course."

"I've beaten many scores… you'll have to be more precise…" Eve told her. She seemed to have decided over a simple and relaxing puzzle game.

"Come on, don't play dumb! Look here," Laby said, tapping the screen over her own signature on the number 1 score.

"I see, I recall seeing that signature in many of these machines. Fine, I guess it'll be fun."

There was one game over the others who was always the option of choice for one on one battles and that was _s**** fighter_. A 2 player fighting game, one of the first of its own genre. Atlas Arcades has all of it's machines, from the first one released years ago to the newest one, which they were going to use for their match. A crowd formed in no time, the clients wanting to see both their everyday gaming idol and the new face that suddenly surpassed her score.

The machines were arranged in two rows, having each competitor in one side. After a few words, both were ready. Characters chosen, loading screen and a robotic voice shouting a quick "Fight!"

People quickly started shouting and cheering for them. The fierce battle they were expectating could look like a simple game to anyone not familiar with the game. Actually, it was a complex confrontation of wit and skill. Both of them putting their skills to the test. What started as a mere challenge escalated to a long competition at the best of three. It was impressive to see how well placed their attacks were, as well as the perfectly timed wards, the swifty movements and the risky taunts.

* * *

It was already night when they finally finished. Their long streak of ties and rematches ended with a victory for Laby. She sighed relieved moving away from the machine. The large crowd expectating them had sadly dissolved. The whole place was mostly empty already, being a few players lingering around and the staff who were waiting in annoyance for the last few clients to leave to close the place.

With nobody to celebrate her victory, Laby walked silently over the exit, Eve walked right next to her. They didn't exchange words, just a few looks. Laby hadn't realized before, but Eve looked way older than her. She was wearing full black. Latex pants and a black leather jacket, a look that used to be trendy but that only a few college students were confident enough to wear nowadays. For some reason, Laby thought she looked cool, specially with the tall brown boots she had. And all of the sudden she felt nervous. She should say something to her, this whole silence was being awfully awkward now.

"So, it was a good game, wasn't it?" She said. Laby already gave up on trying to put an aggressive façade, that attempt failed long ago. And she actually enjoyed the challenge, specially the part where she finally won.

"Yeah, we could repeat it sometime," Eve said.

Laby stood in front of Atlas Arcade's main door. She looked around before checking her clock.

"Crap!" She said, startled by the time "The last bus passed one hour ago!"

This was a bad situation. Her house was a bit far away and it was already late at night. She wasn't as worried about having to walk there as she was about what reaction her roommate would have for her to arrive that late. Just as she was thinking, she heard the distinct sound of a zippo being lit. She turned around to see Eve lighting a cigarette and putting her lighter away.

"I can take you home, after all it's partly my found you got stranded here," Eve said, taking the cigarette from her lips and pointing with it to a neary stationed bike.

"Oh, you could?" Laby said, but was immediately taken back by the situation. She was here to claim her title as queen of the arcades, but now she was behaving like a little kid. This wasn't going to take her anywhere "Actually, I had planned to go out tonight…"

"In your school uniform?" Eve pointed out.

Laby felt a bit stupid for a moment before nodding at her.

"Hey, why don't we tag along? I bet you were going to head home and do nothing anyways…" Laby said, she felt like her small act was about to be blown away. However, to her surprise; Eve shrugged and gestured for her to hop in the bike.

* * *

Altera at night is pretty different than your usual town. Since the best academy in the world was here, there was thousands of youngsters hanging around. There were many different places to pick from. Loud dancing halls, quiet cafeterias, boring musicless bars and many others.

Laby knew most of her classmates are already used to go out in the night like this, but for her this was the first time. Only one year away from entering college, she was still being held back by her roommate Nisha, who was also the only person taking care of her. Being so overprotective, Nisha didn't allowed Laby to go out in the night never before. However, for whatever reason; Laby didn't took that in consideration when telling Eve about hanging out.

They finally stopped driving around. Eve had chosen a small bar with loud rock music and very few clients. Most of them dressing like her, some of them even greeted her as she arrived. Laby nervously followed Eve inside.

"One of the usual, Rena" Eve ordered. The waitress winked at her before reaching for the top self behind the bar. She was a nice looking elf that seemed to know Eve pretty well "Do you want something?"

Laby tensed up. She knew that once she broke Nisha's prohibition on going out, drinking alcohol would only make it worse. But at the same time, she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of this older girl.

"I'll take the same thing as you…" She finally answered, not sure of her own words.

Eve raised an eyebrow at her answer "You sure? I like my drinks strong."

"Yeah!" Laby said, trying to mask her doubts.

Eve gestured for Rena to come back and whispered something into her long ear that Laby couldn't hear. Rena went back to prepare her drinks, although she left out something from Laby's one. After a taste, she felt like it was good, she was afraid it would burn her throat or something, as she heard other people say about alcohol.

"This is your first time going out right?" Eve suddenly asked, making Laby forget how to drink without splashing yourself.

"O-of course not! I've been around here many times with Lu and…" She said, but stopped after realizing Eve wouldn't know them.

"Sure… Come with me, I'll introduce you to some friends," Eve said, standing up with her drink in hand.

They moved away from the bar and wandered the small room that was the whole place. It was too dark to see anything, or anyone. And Laby could only see the many decorations on the walls, the only part sufficiently lightened. She was surprised to found such a bizarre combination of pictures from rock bands, two large saws glued to the wall and a drawing of a butt being groped. Distracting herself from it, she looked at the group that Eve finally found.

"Laby, this is Raven and his girlfriend Elesis, Aisha and Chung," Eve said, pointing to a buff, troublesome looking man, a delinquent-like red head, a nerdy purple haired girl and an out of place kind and educated looking boy respectively.

"The hell Eve? Don't tell me you kidnap little girls now," Raven said, leaning forward on his seat, only to be elbowed by Elesis.

"Come on babe, be more polite to the new face," Elesis complained, making him grunt and go back to act as her backrest.

Little girl. Kidnaped little girl. She was one year away from college yet these people thought she was some kind of middle schooler of something. Laby didn't like them, and she prayed she weren't so stupid as to have attempted to pretend being more mature than she actually was. Luckily for her, someone was quick noticing her regrets.

"Well, I have to go," Eve suddenly announced, just five minutes after sitting with them.

"So soon?" Aisha complained.

"Yeah, I have to drive her home and I wasn't planning to pass by anyway…" She said, prompting Laby to stand up as well.

She didn't said nothing while walking with her back to the bike. She was both embarrassed and angry with herself, both for failing in looking cool and for getting in trouble with Nisha. But she couldn't help it. Leaving anything related with games aside, Eve looked to cool, and cute. Laby always had so many troubles when around cute girls, she never understood why, but it was her one weak point.

"Hey," Eve said, garnering her attention "Next time we could hang out somewhere you could enjoy more, and next time don't force yourself to do something you don't feel like doing."

"I-I would love to," Laby said. She felt so relieved. She was expecting Eve to be waiting to laugh at her with her friends or something.

Now, the only thing to worry about would be Nisha's lecture.

* * *

_**To be continued.**_

_**Thanks to Haroo950 for allowing me to use their wonderful art as a cover :3**_


End file.
